Saving Gwen
by MadWithMusic
Summary: After a nasty gunfight with Rhys, Gwen is left devastated and regretful. Jack is there to comfort her through the rough patch, but after a vision from an old friend in his sleep, he's forced to get the two back together and make sure they have a wedding. Jack/Gwen
1. Chapter 1

Gwen could hear her heart pounding in her ears as she placed a chair in front of the locked door. She bent over, putting her hands on her knees and breathed for a moment. Rhys's screams were still hearable through the wooden door. Gwen had called Jack moments ago, when she reached her phone off the countertop. He was on her way but she hoped he'd get here in time. That door wouldn't hold much longer, especially with a fired up man on the other side. As Rhys kicked the door, it split, shattering down the middle. He held his gun at ready, aimed and Gwen's chest. Tears ran down her cheeks.

"Rhys, honey. Don't do this. We can talk this out."

"There's nothing to talk out, Gwen! It's over between us! I know you don't love me anymore. And all this 'job' crap is all a lie! I know it is! You're probably standing on corners late nights taking what you can for your body!"

"Rhys, NO!"

Rhys flipped the firing pin of the gun. Jack and Owen burst through the room just then. Rhys didn't turn around.

"Rhys! Put it down!" screamed Jack

"I don't see why. There's nothing left for me in this life! I might as well make all you suffer while I can!"

Rhys repositioned the gun up to Gwen, steadying his aim. Jack pounced on Rhys as he pulled the trigger. Just in time, the gun fired after Rhys was pushed to the ground, although it still hit Gwen. The bullet tore through her thigh, ripping through her jeans and piercing her flesh. She cried out in pain. She placed her hands over the wound. Owen ran over to her while Jack subdued Rhys. Owen tore part of his shirt and tied it around her leg, stopping blood flow.

"You're coming back with me, you bastard." Jack said to Rhys, pulling him off the ground.

"Well who the hell are you anyways?!"

"Jack Harkness, Owen Harper. Torchwood."

Jack continued dragging Rhys to the van and through him in the back, hands cuffed. Gwen limped out to the SUV, balancing on Owen's shoulder. He put her in the middle row, and propped her leg up with a box of ammo kept under the seat. Gwen smiled despite the pain.

She chuckled and said, "Owen, the best you could do for me was an ammo box?"

"Well, I'm sorry your highness, but it's working isn't it."

The three Torchwood members smiled. Jack kept an eye on Rhys through the rearview mirror. Rhys glared at Jack. You could smell the adrenaline in the air. Rhys twitched his eye as the bruise from Jack's hard swing formed a black eye.

"You enjoy that now." Jack said.

Rhys scowled. Gwen grunted in pain as the SUV went over a bump in the road, throwing her leg up then down on the ammo box again. After a few moments she was sure everything was fine, well as fine as her leg could be at the moment. Jack used his coms to summon Ianto up from the Hub. He grabbed Rhys and Jack and Owen helped Gwen to the medical table. While Owen and Ianto sedated and took Rhys down to the vaults, Jack took a look at Gwen's wound.

"I can't get to wound from here, Gwen."

"What you have to do?" Gwen asked cautiously.

"Well, you'll just have to remove your pants."

"Remove my pants?"

"Or we could cut off your leg." Jack replied jokingly.

"Well, as long as you're being professional about this." Gwen said with a look in her eye.

Gwen unbuttoned and unzipped her pants at the waist and took her right leg out. Jack gently eased her left leg out of her pants, careful not to cause Gwen any pain. He handed her a small sheet and she placed it over herself. Jack gently felt around the wound to see if he could deduct where the bullet went. She winced in pain.

"Sorry Gwen, but I gotta do this."

"I know. Why is Rhys being such an ass about all this?"

"I told you not to let it drift Gwen."

"I know, but how am I supposed to tell my boyfriend that I hunt aliens for a living? He thinks I'm a bloody whore!" Gwen exclaimed.

"Like I said, don't let it drift."

'How could I not let it drift?' thought Gwen to herself. She shivered as Jack's course fingers danced on her thigh. His fingers felt coarse against her fair skin, but she didn't mind. He gradually moved his hand up. He looked up at Gwen, her messy hair falling down her face. He used his free hand to brush some flyaways out of her face. She smiled softly. Gwen continued looking at her leg, seeing how bad it was. Jack glanced back down. As he did, their eyes met, just for a second, and Gwen's eyes looked more beautiful to him now than they had ever before. He looked back down to her leg. It wasn't bleeding too much so he knew the bullet missed an artery. He grabbed some painkillers off the counter and handed Gwen two of them. She took them without water, anxious to numb the pain.

Owen jogged over to the medical beds. He snapped on his gloves and went over to Gwen. He saw Jack's partial bloody hands, and Gwen's bare legs, not to mention the gaping wound in her leg.

"Come on, Jack. You and I both know it's not sanitary for you or Gwen to touch her wound." Owen said distastefully.

"Well, I think I'm safe, Owen. Anyways, I already administered the painkillers, so in a few moments, you should be good to extract the bullet." Jack blatantly stated.

Owen worked on Gwen's leg and patched it up. It was still hard to walk, but she'd recover eventually, especially with those high dose painkillers Torchwood has. As she grabbed her bag and began walking towards the door, Jack grabbed her arm and turned her to face him, her chest up against his and her warm breath brushing across his face.

"You're not planning on going home are you?" Jack asked dubiously.

"Where else is there to go, Jack? The closest family I have is at least 2 hours drive away. I'm going home."

"Gwen, you and I both know that we couldn't keep Rhys here for long and he's going to be at home, and angry as hell, ready for a fight, and you're not in condition for that, and even if you were, I wouldn't send you back to him." Jack pleaded.

"Well, Mr. Harkness, if you're so full of ideas, then where do you say I should go?" Gwen questioned, obviously getting agitated and Jack's protectiveness.

"Nowhere."

"Nowhere? What you do you mean, nowhere?" Gwen moaned.

"Don't go anywhere. Stay here for the night. I basically lived here my whole life; you can survive a couple nights here until we find you a more permanent place to stay, cant you?" Jack offered.

Gwen thought for a moment before agreeing, but still doubtful, she asked, "I have nowhere to sleep, and no clean clothes. What about that, Jack?"

"You can sleep in my bed. It's not like I ever use it anyways, really. And we can go out and get you some new clothes tomorrow, free of charge."

"Fine." Gwen hesitantly agreed. Jack handed her one of his blue dress shirts to wear. She grabbed the shirt and walked off to the other room to change. When she walked back in, Jack tried his hardest not to gawk. The shirt draped down her shoulders and followed her curves. The shirt ended just where her legs began, the bandage of the bullet wound barely visible, peeking out beneath the shirt.

"Oi! Harkness, it's not polite to stare!" Gwen said jokingly.

"Well, just know that I'll have your head if you get that shirt dirty. That's my favorite!"

Jack and Gwen both laughed at the statement and stood looking at each other in silence.

Realizing the tension between the two, Jack broke the silence. "Well, I should get going so you could go to sleep. Long day, Gwen."

"Long day…" Gwen responded.

After he left, she flicked off the lights. She grabbed the collar of his shirt and pulled it up to her face. It smelt of him, even though it was recently washed. She told herself no, telling herself to stop, that she and Rhys would work it out, and that he had a logical explanation to why he shot her. Maybe when he was drinking with Daf someone spiked his drink, or maybe he was drugged, or getting paid to do it, but the hatred she saw in his eyes was enough to make her believe that he was serious, and didn't have any alcohol or chemical influence. And that killed her. Rhys was a man she used to love. He was sweet and funny, and perfect. She felt a tear roll down her face and drop onto her neck and shoulder area. He was supposed to be the one, the father of her children, the man she loved, not her horror story.

"Oh one last thing, Gwen." Jack said as he popped in. Gwen turned on the lights. Jack saw the mascara streaks down her cheeks, as she'd forgotten to remove her make-up that night.

"Gwen…" he said softly.

"Come here…" he added, walking over and sitting on the edge of the bed. She collapsed on his shoulder crying. He softly rubbed his hand up and down her back as her arms wrapped around his torso.

"What caused him to turn like this, Jack? Why did he have to get so violent? I would've told him if it 'd saved us. I really loved him, Jack. I did, I really did!" Gwen sobbed.

"I know you did, Gwen. I know you did." Jack said, trying to comfort her. He wrapped his other hand around her and put it behind her head, her dark locks of hair rolling over it.

"I'm sorry, Jack." Gwen said, choking back tears. "I shouldn't be bringing you into this. It's not your job to fix my social life."

Jack gently pushed her off his shoulder and used two fingers to lift her chin so she looked him in the eyes. "Yes it is. It's my job to care for you and protect you. And I don't know how I'd live without you. You're one of the best team members I've ever seen at Torchwood, and you have so much talent and potential." Gwen slowly blinked her eyes, the last of her tears dripping down.

"Thanks, Jack." Gwen said, slightly smiling. "What was it you needed to tell me?"

"Oh, it can wait until tomorrow, when you're feeling better. Now get some sleep, Gwen." Jack said, turning out the lights and proceeding to go to his office.


	2. Chapter 2

Gwen yawned as she rolled over in the bed. She cringed when she turned on her hurt leg. With a deep breath she sat up and got out of bed. Her leg was still sore, but she could walk a little better today than she could last night. The sleep probably did her good. She walked through Jack's office with her daytime clothes clenched tightly in her hand. Surprisingly, Jack wasn't in his office and it was ominously quiet. Gwen stepped from his office and looked out into the hub. Tosh's computer was booted up, and Owen had a specimen on his table, but neither were in sight. Fresh coffee was already brewed, so Ianto had been here. Had Jack let her sleep through rift activity?

"Bloody Harkness…" she muttered under her breath.

Gwen walked over to Tosh's monitor to see if she could depict where the rift spike came from. Gwen scoured over Tosh's many monitors and skimmed through lines of cryptic code for a long while, before she saw two numbers in parentheses – coordinates. She pulled out her phone and looked up the coordinates. Gwen ran, as fast as she could despite her leg, to her car, grabbing her purse on the way out. She pulled out and programmed her GPS. The drive was only a few minutes but it felt like an eternity. With one hand on the wheel, she made sure her gun was loaded. With a sharp jerk of the wheel, her car skidded on the road into a perfect parallel park. She climbed out trying her best to look like she wasn't injured.

She carefully edged the corner of the building before kicking the door down, gun blazing. Nothing stirred and she didn't hear a sound from anywhere in the building. She scanned for life signs and saw one coming from the upper floor. She cautiously went up the stairs and walked down the hallway towards the office where the life signs were coming from. She creaked open the door. Inside, she saw a man, torn up and bloody. His chest was barely rising and falling. She opened the door and kept her gun at the ready.

The man on the floor opened his eyes, but did not panic at the gun. "What you going to do, shoot a dying man? Put that thing down before someone gets hurt."

Obeying, Gwen put her gun away before bombarding the man with questions.

"**What did this to you?"**

Coughing up a little blood, the man answered, "A small creature. We all thought it was some kind of dog or something like that, but it wasn't. It went into all of our rooms, one by one, and mutilated us."

"**Did anyone else come in not from your office?"**

"Yeah, there were four people." He said, stopping to cough again. "A big tall man in a coat, another skinny man, an Asian woman, and a man in a suit. I think they said their name was something about a light."

"**Torchwood?"**

"Yeah. That's it. Torchwood. And you might want to know that the man in the coat went in the next room with the creature. The creature came out but not the man." As he finished his sentence, he went into a coughing fit. Blood spilled down his face. He convulsed a little, but then went limp.

"I'm sorry." Gwen whispered.

Gwen went in the next room, Office 207. Under the number a name was placed on the door. It read Samantha Daniels. Gwen opened the door with her gun now drawn. The office was a mess with papers everywhere, a desk was tipped, and a window was smashed. Curled in a corner of the room she saw two bodies. One was a young blonde woman. Upon further inspection, she saw the woman was pregnant, too. With respect, Gwen hoisted the woman off the other body. The face was badly damaged, but she could tell by the coat it was Jack. The wounds were slowly healing as his face was reconstructed. Gwen placed her hand on his cheek. She walked to the other side of the room and grabbed the office chair. She up righted it and wheeled it towards Jack. She sat on it, waiting for Jack to heal.

Finally, with that all too familiar gasp of breath, Jack lurched forward. He propped up his hands and then saw the pair of feet resting under the chair. He looked up to see Gwen.

"Gwen, what are you doing here?" Jack asked surprisingly.

"You can't leave me out of a case if I'm sick, or shot, and especially not because I'm sleeping!" Gwen said. She grabbed Jack's hand and helped him up. He was still a bit dizzy, but walked straight. Gwen searched for life signs, but saw none other than her and Jack.

"Where's the rest of the team?" Gwen asked.

"They must've gone after that alien." Jack assumed.

"Do you know what it is, Jack?"

"As far as I've been at Torchwood, we've never caught one ourselves, but I think it's a Xanax. It appears to people as whatever they want to see then gets them while they're vulnerable and close to it. Most people don't know until it's too late. One way to notice one if you see it is to try and get it to talk or whimper if it's an animal. They are completely mute and can't make any noise while out of their true form."

"We have to get going Jack! Owen, Tosh, and Ianto are out there chasing it, along with the whole city of Cardiff at risk!"

The two got in the SUV and Jack said they'd pick up Gwen's car on the way back. As he looked to the passenger seat he laughed.

"Nice attire." Jack said sarcastically.

Gwen looked down and realized she was still in his blue button down shirt. She also noticed she probably should've changed her bandage. There was a spot of dried blood that had bled through the bandage. Jack also noticed that and said that she should get it taken care of, but Gwen insisted on finding the rest of the team, despite her embarrassing outfit and injury.

"The locator on their coms says they're only a couple blocks south of here at an abandoned warehouse. I remember that warehouse. It was closed down not too long ago, it used to be an impound building. There were cubicles on the 1st and 2nd floors, then all the rest were parking." Jack said.

Gwen looked over at the screen and began sprinting the best she could. She stumbled as she felt part of her sutures tear out. She screamed and fell. Jack ran over to her concerned. She said she just tripped over her own feet. She got up painfully and continued running, although she could feel her leg bleeding, and saw the red blood coming through on the bandage, hoping Jack wouldn't notice. He did however notice she'd slowed down and was running differently.

"You feeling all right there, Gwen?" he called, gaining speed on her.

"Just fine, Jack. That fall just threw me off a little bit."

Gwen continued on running towards the location. She saw the intersection and the street names and ran into the warehouse. She saw a trail of dried blood spatters on the floor. She followed the trail to see a small dark creature tearing up an unconscious Owen.

"Oi! You!" Gwen yelled.

The creature turned to face her, a piece of skin hanging in its teeth. Gwen shot it through the head, black blood spraying from the back. Jack walked in and saw the creature on the ground, then saw Owen. Gwen and Jack went over to Owen. He had scratches in his abdomen and a bite taken from his side. Gwen leaned over him and had her hands on his head gently shaking it pleading for him to come back into consciousness.

"I'll go find Tosh and Ianto." Jack said as he went to the upper floors. The second floor he visited, he saw Tosh crouched on top of a bookshelf with a desk next to it. She probably climbed the bookshelf using the desk. She was unscathed, thankfully.

"Jack! Jack!" Tosh called as soon as she saw him.

Jack walked over to Tosh and helped her off the shelf. He picked her gun up off the ground and handed it to her. She and him advanced to the third floor of the warehouse, where Ianto was when they were attacked. Jack explained to Tosh about the Xanax. They heard a rustle from the floor above. They both drew their guns and ran up the stairs. They found Ianto crashing into cars, half dazed. He had blood all down him and his clothes were tattered. There was a pool of blood on the top of a silver car, with smears down the side. As Ianto approached Jack and Tosh, he collapsed. Jack caught him and Tosh helped Jack carry him down the lower floor.

When they got down there, they saw Owen stirring slightly. His eyes were open but he was in pretty bad shape. Jack left Gwen with the team and creature while he went to get the SUV. He returned and placed Ianto on the seats in the back. Tosh and Owen took the middle seats and Gwen took the passenger seat, surprised no ne had questioned her choice in clothing. In all the tension, they probably didn't care. With Owen and Ianto drifting out of consciousness, and Tosh traumatic, Gwen didn't notice her leg. Jack did, though.

"Gwen! Your leg is bloody! Take your bandage off and show me how bad it is."

Gwen unwrapped her bandage and removed it. Jack looked at it for a minute. She was pale and the blood was visibly flowing from the open suture. Jack nodded in disapproval.

"Gwen, you should've told me your leg was this bad."

"And you would've made me doctor it up and rest at the hub, right?

"Well with an injury like yours, that's the safe thing to do!" Jack defended.

"I'm in Torchwood, Jack! Torchwood and safe can never go in the same sentence."

Jack rolled his eyes and sighed. Gwen put the bandage over her leg and applied pressure the rest of the drive. As said before, Jack dropped her off by her car, and she went back to Torchwood behind the SUV.


End file.
